Dr. Mustafa al-Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, announced the launch of an international campaign against "Israeli apartheid and racist discriminatory policies aimed at preventing Palestinians from obtaining vaccines against the coronavirus." The BDS movement, of which al-Barghouti is a leader, calls for a total boycott of Israel at all levels until it gives in to Palestinian Arab demands. Barghouti noted that so far the campaign has managed to paint a negative picture of Israeli policy in publications in the international media, including in the US. As part of this activity, signatures have been collected for a petition against the alleged Israeli policy which has been dubbed "apartheid medicine" and a demand to immediately provide vaccine doses to Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip. He said that pro-Palestinian groups had mobilized all over the world to take part in this campaign. Barghouti called Israeli policy a "crime of racial discrimination" which exposed the "Israeli racist apartheid regime." Despite the claims that Israel is deliberately preventing Palestinian Arabs from receiving the coronavirus vaccine, Palestinian Authority Health Minister Mai al-Kaila told the Arab news agency Wafa over the weekend that the PA had purchased many doses of the Russian vaccine, which would arrive in the first quarter of 2021. In December, PA health officials revealed that they had not asked Israel for assistance in acquiring coronavirus vaccines, preferring to deal directly with foreign companies and the World Health Organization to procure the doses.
